“When he’s not checking Gmail on his MacBook, Vladimir Putin’s new Internet czar can’t stop railing against American technology companies,” Ilya Khrennikov and Stepan Kravchenko report for Bloomberg. “Google, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., collectively worth more than Russia’s gross domestic product, have all entered German Klimenko’s crosshairs since he was named Putin’s first Internet adviser six weeks ago.”
“In a 90-minute interview peppered with expletives, Klimenko said forcing Google and Apple to pay more taxes and banning Microsoft Windows from government computers are necessary measures best explained in terms of barnyard economics and marital infidelity,” Khrennikov and Kravchenko report. “‘We are breeding the cow and they are milking it,’ Klimenko, who hasn’t had time to move into his Kremlin office, said in Moscow at the headquarters of his Internet group, which includes blog-hosting and statistics services.”
“Klimenko, 49, is pushing to raise taxes on U.S. companies to help level the playing field for Russian competitors such as Yandex and Mail.ru. His efforts mirror those of governments across Europe and beyond to squeeze more revenue out of Google, Apple and other multinationals with increasingly complex billing and ownership structures,” Khrennikov and Kravchenko report. “‘When you buy an app from Google Play or the App Store anywhere in Europe, VAT is charged at the place of payment, but not here in our banana republic,’ Klimenko said. The proposed amendment to the tax code is one of scores being debated by lawmakers seeking new sources of revenue to plug the biggest fiscal deficit in six years.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like the “banana republic” of Russia, as massively bloated, infinitely voracious governmental operations are wont to do, is attempting to rake in even more cash by whatever means possible.
Surely once they get their mitts on it, they’ll spend it ever so wisely.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
About time. Apple paid 2.8 Percent taxes of foreign profits between 2010 and 2014 in europe. The problem is: its legal. But not funny.
http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2015-09/iphone-apple-steuern-europa
Legal is all that is required or necessary.
Ah Russia wants Silicon Valley liberals to feel the Bern!
Pretty funny quip! I hope that you do not honestly believe that the tax cut-and-spend policies of the conservative right have been any better for our country. Or that starting two wars and spending $600+B on national defense annually (mostly used to try to impose our will on other nations) is a smart idea when we are running large annual deficits and other critical needs are lacking for funding.
All I can say is better the Bern than the Trump or the Cruz. Nominate a real candidate or shove off.
Also, you might want to consider that a lot of conservatives own AAPL and will share in the pain. Do you even stop to think before posting your partisan crap? Obviously not…
Lets see. If they raise taxes, what could be Apple’s possible reactions.
1. Pull out of the country? No!
2. Just keep selling them the wonderful phones and make less or no profit? Because, you know, Companies aren’t really in it to make money. Right?
2. Raise the price of the phone to offset the tax hit? Probably. Sell less phones. Customers can’t afford them. Have to buy local junk. Line pockets of protected phone selling buddies.
The consumer pays for everything. Seems like governments don’t get that.
Oh Yeah. I forgot to mention that their tax revenue will likely go down.
“The consumer pays for everything. Seems like governments don’t get that.”
More likely that the governments do get it. They just stir up the people to sock ti to the corporations so that they, themselves, unwittingly have to dig deeper into their own pockets.
At least they don’t want use use Microsoft for their government systems. That’s smarter than the US government’s using MS operating systems for the vast majority of their employees computing needs.
Buy more bombs to help Assad.
🔔*DING*DING*DING*🔔
Total agreement! Today was particularly poignant with Obama bringing attention to computer security. #MyStupidGovernment strikes again.
“Surely once they get their mitts on it, they’ll spend it (taxes) ever so wisely.”
Hey, Klimenko needs to fund his retirement dacha compound in Italy or wherever.
Putin and his criminal consortia have looted so many billions from the Russian state they are worried about their future revenue stream. After all even in a good year with high oil prices the Russian economy is similar in size to that of France.
Not really; with purchasing power parity taken into, Russia’s economy/GDP is way bigger than that of France or collective worth of companies listed in this article.
> banning Microsoft Windows from government computers
I can agree with that, Any gov should do that, but in this case it may be done for the wrong reasons…….
If Russia wants to play at being CREATIVE, then have at it!
But I think we all know what’s going on. Clearly this protectionist political ploy is a demonstration that Russia’s technology creativity is lame and requires a crutch.
The tax Klimenko collects, will come from his own people.
Very cleaver, use American tech companies to strip more money from the Russian masses.
However since Google’s profits come from advertisers, this might actually be a good idea.